Rockford is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Redding Township, Jackson County,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

History

Rockford was named for the "rocky ford" of the East Fork of the White River where easier crossing was permitted by a rock river bottom. The village is approximately 1 mile west of Tipton Island along the White River. The area was first settled in about 1813 by James Reno, who was the grandfather of the infamous

Reno Gang The Reno Gang, also known as the Reno Brothers Gang and The Jackson Thieves, were a group of criminals that operated in the Midwestern United States during and just after the American Civil War. Though short-lived, the gang carried out the firs ...

. The small community was known as New Rockford and Old Rockford in the 1840s. In 1852, the terminus of the north-south

Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad The Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad (JM&I) was formed in 1866 as a merger between the Indianapolis and Madison Railroad and the Jeffersonville Railroad. Genealogy The JM&I predecessors were as follows: *Jeffersonville, Madison ...

was in Rockford. It was known as a pork packing center and had several established businesses such as a

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

, post office,

Masonic Lodge A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...

and a newspaper. The last newspaper, the ''Rockford Herald'', was printed by Dr Jasper Monroe in 1857. He was persuaded to move to nearby

Seymour, Indiana Seymour is a city in Jackson County, Indiana, United States. Its population was 21,569 at the 2020 census. The city is noted for its location at the intersection of two major north–south and east–west railroads, which cross each other in th ...

by the town's founder,

Meedy Shields Meedy White Shields (July 8, 1804 - February 6, 1866) was an American pioneer and politician in the state of Indiana, who was successful in various business ventures and founded the city of Seymour. He was a nephew of John Shields of Lewis and ...

, where he published under the name ''Seymour Times''.¹ Meedy Shields, through skillful maneuvering, succeeded in getting a new east-west rail stop of the

Ohio and Mississippi Railroad The Ohio and Mississippi Railway (earlier the Ohio and Mississippi Rail Road), abbreviated O&M, was a railroad operating between Cincinnati, Ohio, and East St. Louis, Illinois, from 1857 to 1893. The railroad started in 1854 and paralleled the ...

two miles south of Rockford, which spelled eventual economic doom. Most original structures were burned out in the 1860s and much of the unkept property was owned by the Reno family.¹

Citations

¹ ''The Masked Halters'' by Edwin J Boley 1977, rare - out of print

References

External links

History of Jackson Masonic Lodge 146

Geography

Rockford is located at . {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Jackson County, Indiana Unincorporated communities in Indiana

History

Citations

References

Further reading

External links

Geography